Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/149

Rh

Hapless! Misfortune's deepest depth thou hast reached!

In thee mine hope hath refuge yet from ills.

Thou com'st to folk in misery, prosperous thou:

Give thy friends share of thy prosperity,

And not for self keep back thine happiness,

But bear a part in suffering in thy turn:

Requite, to whom thou ow'st, my father's boon.

The name of friendship have they, not the truth,

The friends that in misfortune are not friends.

Lo, hither straineth on with agèd feet

The Spartan Tyndareus, in vesture black,

His hair, in mourning for his daughter, shorn.

Undone, Menelaus!—hither Tyndareus

Draws nigh me, whose eye most of all I shun

To meet, by reason of the deed I wrought.

He fostered me a babe, and many a kiss

Lavished upon me, dandling in his arms

Agamemnon's son, with Leda at his side,

No less than those Twin Brethren honouring me:

To whom —O wretched heart and soul of mine!—

I have rendered foul return! What veil of gloom

Can I take for my face?—before me spread

What cloud, to shun the old man's searching eye?